The Road to Forever – Beaumont – Next Generation Read Online Heidi McLaughlin

Categories Genre: Alpha Male Tags Authors:
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Total pages in book: 97
Estimated words: 93936 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 470(@200wpm)___ 376(@250wpm)___ 313(@300wpm)
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“I’m sure they’ll cry,” Noah says with a sigh. “My mom started crying this morning on the phone because one of the boys cooed in the background. I didn’t have the heart to tell her it was Stevie Nicks chomping on a toy.”

I hold back my laughter as we reach the house. Soft holiday music wafts from the in-house speaker system. Liam’s walking around wearing a Santa hat and handing out eggnog.

“Merry Christmas, Quinn.” He hands me a glass.

“Thanks, you too. Is it spiked?” I answer my own question as soon as I take a sip. “Shit, this’ll put hair on my chest.” Liam laughs and hands Noah one, who tells his dad no thanks.

Betty Paige comes over and helps me spread the presents out. She seems quiet and honestly a bit withdrawn. After a few moments of no eye contact, which is extremely odd, I elbow her.

“You okay?”

She shrugs.

“Wanna talk about it?”

She looks around the room, and I do the same. There’s no doubt we’re seeing the same thing, our parents obsessed with the babies. Even Ollie is more interested in them. He didn’t even try to tackle me when I walked in.

“Come on, let’s go down to the studio and bang on the drums.”

Betty Paige and I escape to the basement studio, where there’s an entire set of instruments, including a drum kit, set up. Honestly, I’m surprised with the new studio in the center of town, Liam keeps this one stocked.

I remember spending a lot of time down here when I was a kid, watching 4225 West record album after album, prepare for their numerous tours, and learning how to play the guitar, keyboard, and drums. The instruments were never off limits.

“What’s your pleasure?”

Paige shrugs. “I don’t really play anything.”

“What? How can that be?”

She sits on the bench by the keyboard and presses the keys. “I don’t know. Dad never pushed it or anything and I never asked to learn.”

“It’s never too late,” I tell her as I tap the snare. “I didn’t think I wanted to be a musician, but here I am.”

“No, what did you want to do?”

“Honestly, be a surfer.”

“Eden has that one in the bag. Me, I’ve got nothing.”

“That’s not true, what do you like to do?”

Paige shrugs. “I’m lost and with the babies here, I feel . . .”

“Invisible?”

She looks up at me. “Yes. How did you know?”

Sighing, I twirl the stick between my fingers. “Because I feel the same way. I always have,” I tell her. “It’s not that I was neglected growing up or anything, but I came into the twin’s life when they were five and they already had each other, plus they were very close to your brother. I was the outsider. Plus, they have that twin language thing. Now, they have more boys than girls with their offspring, and Juniper is going to be just like us.”

“She’s very sweet,” Paige says. “I always hold her first when I get there and then right before I leave.”

I can’t help but laugh. “I held her all night the other night and slept in the chair with her.”

“So, you’re trying to make her love you more?”

Without hesitating, I nod and then bang the cymbal. Paige shakes her head.

“At least you got one named after you.”

“True, but you’re named after your bad ass great grandma. Have you ever looked her up?”

Paige shakes her head.

“Oh, man. You’ve got to. My grandma loved Betty’s movies back in the day. Seriously, Paige, you need a movie marathon. Your name is so iconic, you don’t want to share it with anyone.”

She frowns a little.

“If I were you, I’d learn all you could about your great-grandmother and roll with it. Embrace who you are and who you’re named after. I’m going to tell the newbies the same thing. Look at poor Jett,” I say, shaking my head. “He doesn’t even get to go by his first name.”

This time she smiles.

“You know he’s going to be that kid in school where the teacher calls his name and he’s going to have to say, I go by Jett, and his teacher is going to roll their eyes, because who names their kid Jett?”

“Elle does,” Paige says.

“Exactly.” I hit the cymbal again. “What I’m saying is probably a bunch of nonsense, but you just have to learn to embrace what you can control. Is having your niece or nephew named after you nice? Sure, but none of them are actually using those names. Junie will never go by Elle. Now maybe if her name was Quinella that would be a different story.”

“Oh God, that is worse than anything,” Paige says. “There’s a group on one of the apps that makes fun of people who give their children outlandish names. I don’t always agree with the names their hating on, but whatever. I’m not having kids so what do I care.”


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